Business Analytics Strategy

IIM Calcutta PGPEX Elective Course

December 2015
Professor Uday Kulkarni
W. P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University
uday.kulkarni@asu.edu
Whats common between Harrahs, Continental, Li & Fung, and Capital One? These organizations
have transformed themselves to claim a sustainable competitive advantage by managing their
information resources strategically, especially via exemplary use of Business Intelligence (BI).
What is the Business Analytics Strategy course about? Creating a sustainable IT-dependent
competitive advantage is a major goal for forward-looking business organizations. This course is
about understanding how organizations make strategic use of BI to gain competitive advantage. It
also covers some of the important technological aspects of BI from a managerial viewpoint.
What does BI mean to professionals in every field? This course has significance for all professions.
Proficiency in BI means excelling at what you do with the help of information in whatever profession you are
in.
For marketing professionals, it means understanding not only what the customers want to buy, but how much
they are willing to pay, and what keeps them loyal.
For supply-chain managers, it means not just tracking inventories, but also anticipating and preventing future
problems and designing more responsive supply networks.
For finance professionals, it means being able to not only measure performance based on accurate financial
information, but also asses the value of intangible capabilities. It also means having a balanced portfolio
of metrics as a strategic management system.
For insurance companies, it means profitably insuring customers traditionally in high-risk categories, detecting
fraudulent behavior before it is too late, and optimizing rate structures.
For human capital managers, it means knowing how much personnel contribute to or take away from the
bottom line and how salary relates to their performance.
For engineers and production managers, it means maximizing yields, and predicting equipment malfunction
before breakdowns occur.
For healthcare personnel, it means saving patient lives by intervening at the first tell-tale signs in real-time.
For IT professionals, it means reinvigorating the companys CRM and ERP systems and integrating information
into a data warehouse. It means meeting the challenges posed by the Big Data phenomenon and
exploiting the opportunities. It means having an IT strategy and cross-functional teams that support the
above initiatives.

Course Objectives
Objective 1: Learn how firms compete with Analytics.
What is "Analytics"? What are the different ways in which analytics are used for competitive
advantage? Why does an analytical competitor have a sustainable competitive advantage? How
does Big Data change the landscape?
Objective 2: Understand what classes of problems can be tackled by BI.
What types of expertise is needed to tackle such problems? How will tomorrows leaders make

Uday Kulkarni

Business Analytics Strategy

complex decisions based on evidence in the data and also take responsibility for making them?
Objective 3: Understand the directions in which BI is evolving.
What areas within BI offer opportunities for gaining a competitive advantage? What technology,
analytic, and human resources are needed to make BI a reality at a competitive level?
Objective 4: Discover the application of BI in specific areas.
How is BI used in areas such as operations, sales and marketing, finance, manufacturing, etc.?
How to integrate BI into business processes and decision-making within your responsibilities?
Objective 5: Understand how BI can be used as a strategic management system.
How should a firm design a right set of performance metrics in order to implement strategy?
How can a manager use BI to measure performance?

Teaching Methodology
This course follows what has come to be known as the flipped classroom approach to teaching.
Before coming to each class, you will typically complete these activities:
1. Read the assigned readings. Note the recommended reading levels: Intense, Moderate, Light.
2. Watch the assigned recorded lecture(s). These cover basic concepts, frameworks, and models.
3. Complete the assigned homework. Note the word limit.
4. Prepare to discuss the listed questions. Do not submit written answers
In each class, we will typically conduct the following activities:
1. Discussions: Professor will facilitate discussions to address questions from the case studies
and assigned readings with students contributing to most of the conversation.
2. Professor Led Presentations: Professor will discuss material to complement the recorded
lectures and discuss the application of concepts to real-life situations.
3. In-class Activities: Students will be asked to work in groups on topics of the day, do problemsolving, generate ideas, write short answers to questions, etc.
4. Quizzes: Daily quizzes will be based on readings, recorded lectures, and class discussions.
5. Student Team Led Presentations/Discussions: Student teams will make a presentation in front
of the class to provide a deeper understanding of a topic.

Evaluation

Class discussion contribution (individual)

Homework (individual)
Quizzes (individual)
Final team project (team)

20%
20%
30%
30%

Class Discussion Contribution: Points will be based on demonstration of understanding of readings

and relating it to other material (e.g., recorded lectures, work experiences), offering synthesis and
evaluation, responding thoughtfully to others, and moving the thinking of the class forward.
Homework: Homework will consist of short answer questions. You will individually complete assigned
homework (hand-written or typed) and submit at the beginning of the class.
Final team Project: You will work with your team to think of a solution for the application specified in
the team project assigned to your team. Your grade will be based on the grading rubric.
Quizzes: These are open-readings/notes tests consisting of multiple choice / short answer questions
based on readings, recorded lectures and class discussions.

Uday Kulkarni

Business Analytics Strategy

Outline of Topics
Session #

Topic

Session 1

Competitive
Advantage via
Analytics
Business Analytics
Overview

Session 2

Session 3
Session 4

Managing Data for

Analytical Purposes
Managing Big Data
Real-time Business
Intelligence (BI)
Big Data, Internet of
Things (IoT)

Session 5

Analytical CRM

Session 6

Data Mining and

Analytics

Session 7

Digital Marketing with

Big Data Analytics

Session 8

Business Process
Performance

Session 9 and
Session 10

Team project
presentations

Uday Kulkarni

Description
Introductions and Syllabus
Course map and teaching philosophy
Use of analytics in building a sustainable competitive
advantage and roadmap to becoming an analytic
competitor
Overview of Business Analytics and how it is evolving
Review of data warehousing and dimensional modeling
as the basis for data management at enterprise level
Big data management (In-memory, in-database, and
other techniques).
Continental Airlines case study: Responding to
customers in real-time
New business models from opportunities created by big
data and IoT
Capital One case study: Customizing products and
managing customer risk
Introduction to data mining
Dramatically improving customer impacting business
processes via analytics
CDK Digital case study: Addressing channel conflict with
big data analytics
Embedding analytics in business processes
Measuring analytically enhanced business process
performance
Student teams present a new analytical solution for the
company assigned to their teams

Business Analytics Strategy

Reading List
Copyrighted Readings:

1. "Competing on Analytics", Thomas H. Davenport. Harvard Business Publishing, R0601H-PDFENG.

2. "Big Data: The Management Revolution", Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Harvard
Business Publishing, R1210C-PDF-ENG
3. Analytics 3.0, Thomas H. Davenport. Harvard Business Publishing, R1312C-PDF-ENG
4. "Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental", Greg Brenneman, Harvard
Business Publishing, 4193-PDF-ENG.
5. Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business, Iansiti
and Lakhani, Harvard Business Publishing, R1411D-PDF-ENG.
6. "CRM Done Right", Darrell Rigby and Dianne Ledingham, Harvard Business Publishing,
R0411H-PDF-ENG.
7. "Customer Relationship Management at Capital One (UK) - Condensed version", The Case
Center, 503-085-1. (www.thecasecentre.org)
8. CDK Digital Marketing: Addressing Channel Conflict with Data Analytics, Harvard Business
School Publishing Case, KEL894-PDF-ENG.
9. Embed Analytics in Business Processes: A How-To Guide, Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G.
Harris, and Robert Morison, Harvard Business Press Chapters, 5751BC-PDF-ENG

Supplemental Readings (provided by the instructor):

1. Continental Airlines Flies High with Real-time Business Intelligence, Teradata University
Network.
2. Big Data: The Future of Information and Business
3. Data Mining Primer Arlene Zaima (Teradata Corp.).

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Business Analytics Strategy

Detailed Schedule

Sessions 1 and 2
Before coming to class:
Read:

"Competing on Analytics (Moderate)

"Big Data: The Management Revolution" (Moderate)
Analytics 3.0 (Moderate)

Watch recorded lecture(s):

Business Analytics Overview Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Data Warehousing and the Dimensional Model

Complete written homework: (Suggested word limit: 100 to 150).

1. What does the author means by the term "Analytics"?

2. Which companys analytics application mentioned in the articles most impressed you? Why?

In class:
Discussion Questions

1. In general, what is Information Technology's role in analytical competition?

2. Why does an analytical competitor have a sustainable competitive advantage?
3. What is meant by Big Data and what is its role in analytical competition.

Quiz 1

Sessions 3 and 4
Before coming to class:
Read:

Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental (Moderate)

Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business
(Moderate)
Continental Airlines Flies High with Real-time Business Intelligence (Intense)
Big Data: The Future of Information and Business (Optional)

Watch recorded lecture(s):

Real-time BI Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Complete written homework: (Suggested word limit: 100 to 150).

Think of a business process in an organization that you are familiar with and that could benefit
from real-time BI. (This should not be purely a technology or a BI process, i.e., one that gathers
data or performs analysis. It should be a business process that may benefit from BI - specifically
from real-time BI). Discuss how it can be transformed to benefit from real-time BI. Discuss the:
1. Need for real-time decision-support
2. Analysis used to improve the real-time decision
3. Latency(ies) reduced (data, analysis, decision latencies)

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Business Analytics Strategy

In class:
Discussion Questions

1. What surprised you the most about this case?

2. What are the important aspects of Continentals strategy?
3. The Continental case shows how its investment in real-time BI is closely aligned with its
business strategy. Give examples of business processes that have changed due to their
enablement by real-time BI and discuss how they have helped its business strategy.
4. Choose one application that Continental has implemented that can serve as a good example
of a real-time BI application and that supports their strategy. Identify the decision that the
application supports and discuss how that has improved the outcome of the underlying
process. What performance metrics are (should be) used to measure the effectiveness of the
business process supported? Identify the real-time and the historical data that the
application needs.
5. How is Continental making use of analytics in its operational BI? What more can they do?
6. Which applications described in the case are not (or need not be) real-time?

Quiz 2

Sessions 5 and 6
Before coming to class:
Read:

"CRM Done Right" (Moderate)

"Customer Relationship Management at Capital One (UK) - Condensed version" (Intense)
"Data Mining Primer (Pages 1-10) (Moderate)

Watch recorded lecture(s):

Data Mining Concepts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Analytical CRM Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Part 5
Complete written homework: (Suggested word limit: 100 to 150).

Think of a business process in an organization that you are familiar with and that could benefit
from data mining. Discuss how it can be transformed to benefit from a data mining application.
Discuss the proposed data mining solution including:
1. Its appropriateness for the situation
2. What the application is trying to predict and/or explain
3. The data needed for mining (remember that mining requires tens of thousands of
records to discover unknown patterns)

In class:
Discussion Questions

1. What was the competitive landscape that Capital One faced when it began its business in the
UK? State and explain in your own words important aspects of Capital Ones competitive
strategy and how did Capital One differentiate itself?
2. According to Morris and Fairbank, why is credit card business an information business and
not (just) a financial business?
3. Identify one business process/activity that is aligned with the companys strategy and that is
supported by BI. Explain the alignment with strategy and how Capital One uses BI to support
this business process/activity.

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Business Analytics Strategy

4. What are the key steps in the "Test and Learn" approach to campaign management? What
does it take to effectively create a Test and Learn environment?
5. In which tasks is Capital One using "analytics"?
6. Does CRM create a competitive advantage for Capital One? Is it sustainable?
7. What can be learned from Capital One that could be applied to [blank (company/industry)]?
What aspects cannot be applied?

Quiz 3

Sessions 7 and 8
Before coming to class:
Read:

CDK Digital Marketing: Addressing Channel Conflict with Data Analytics (Intense)
Embed Analytics in Business Processes: A How-To Guide (Pages 1-8) (Moderate)

Watch recorded lecture(s):

Embed Analytics in Business Processes Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Business Performance Management Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Complete written homework: (Suggested word limit: 100 to 150).

From your current or prior work, think of a business process you are (were) familiar with. You
may not participate in the entire process from end-to-end. Most likely, you participate at a task
or sub-process level. In that case, think of the overall process that your task/sub-process is part
of.
1. Briefly describe the purpose of the process and its business outcome(s).
2. Suggest an enhancement by embedding analytics into one or more tasks of the business
process.
3. What metrics are currently used to measure the outcomes of the business process?
What metrics would you recommend? Which metrics do you expect to improve because
of your suggested analytical improvement? Consider both quantitative and qualitative
metrics.

In class:
Discussion Questions

1. What is the source of conflict between manufacturers and dealers when marketing to
potential customers?
2. How would you characterize CDK Digitals core competencies?
3. If a customers interests were known when he/she visited a dealer web site, how would the
dealer / OEM want to treat him/her differently?
4. How can CDK Digital leverage channel conflict?
5. What more can CDK Digital do to secure its position as an analytical intermediary in the auto
industry?
6. Think of partner relationships in other industries where channel conflict may exist. What can
be learned from the CDK Digital case that could be applied to [blank (company / industry)]?
What aspects cannot be applied?

Quiz 4

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Business Analytics Strategy

Sessions 9 and 10
Before coming to class:

Prepare 15-minute presentation of your final team project. You will think of a creative,
practical, and useful, new BI application for the company assigned to your team from the cases
studies you have read for this class. Submit a printout of the presentation (6 slides/page, B&W).

In class:

Present the project and answer questions. Participate in peer evaluation of other teams.

Guidance on Reading Levels:

Reading at light level means reading in one quick pass. Understand the big picture and some
vocabulary. This is background reading. We will not discuss this material directly in class.

Reading at moderate level means giving the material one solid end-to-end pass, highlighting
sections that you feel are important as you read, making notes in the margins, etc. We shall
discuss this material in class.

Reading at intense level means reading in an immersed manner and then going back and
reading important portions again. Read the posted homework and the discussion questions,
discuss in a study group, if needed, and make reference notes for answering the discussion
questions. Be prepared to engage in a deep discussion in class beyond the factual material in
the readings.

Tips on Preparing for Class and Learning

Synthesizing: As you read, think about the problems and opportunities offered. If the articles
(including those from earlier class sessions) offer insights into the case, try to see how you can apply
them. Class sessions will be interactive and all students will be provided ample opportunity to
participate. Remember, there are no right answers and you can always take a stand after proper
analysis. For preparing for a case study discussion:
Read the discussion questions and analyze the readings in their context.
Watch the recorded lectures. Pause often to make notes, observations. Rewind and reply, if
necessary. (This is a major advantage of recorded lectures which is not possible in a class
lecture).
Meet with your team mates or a study team and discuss the questions.
Complete the homework, if any.
Prepare your own notes with outline of responses for each discussion question.
Learning: Most of the learning will occur while preparing, exchanging ideas with study teams, and
participating in the class activities and discussions. Thus, your own learning experience depends on
the level of responsibility you take. The analytical and communication skills needed to contribute to
class discussions are the same as those needed to be responsible managers and effective leaders.
Your obligation is not just to prepare and attend but also to actively participate and lead the
discussions. Effective learning is characterized by:
Ability to listen. (Are you jumping to what you want to say without understanding earlier
comments?)
Relevant contribution to discussion. (Do your comments relate to the comments of others
to the themes that the class is exploring together?)
Uday Kulkarni

Business Analytics Strategy

Willingness to challenge ideas respectfully, not contentiously. (Do you offer alternative
viewpoints?)
Integration of material from past classes, readings, cases, etc. (Do you exhibit cumulative
knowledge?)
Testing new ideas, not being safe. (Are you analyzing/concluding and not just repeating
facts?)

Uday Kulkarni

Business Analytics Strategy